Blood test shows high accuracy in detecting stage I non-small cell lung cancer.

BACKGROUND: In a previous study (Goebel et. al, Cancer Genomics Proteomics 16:229-244, 2019), we identified 33 biomarkers for an early stage (I-II) Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) test with 90% accuracy, 80.3% sensitivity, and 95.4% specificity. For the current study, we used a narrowed ensemble of 21 biomarkers while retaining similar accuracy in detecting early stage lung cancer. METHODS: A multiplex platform, 486 human plasma samples, and 21 biomarkers were used to develop and validate our algorithm which detects early stage NSCLC. The training set consisted of 258 human plasma with 79 Stage I-II NSCLC samples. The 21 biomarkers with the statistical model (Lung Cancer Detector Test 1, LCDT1) was then validated using 228 novel samples which included 55 Stage I NSCLC. RESULTS: The LCDT1 exhibited 95.6% accuracy, 89.1% sensitivity, and 97.7% specificity in detecting Stage I NSCLC on the blind set. When only NSCLC cancers were analyzed, the specificity increased to 99.1%. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to current approved clinical methods for diagnosing NSCLC, the LCDT1 greatly improves accuracy while being non-invasive; a simple, cost-effective, early diagnostic blood test should result in expanding access and increase survival rate.

Diagnosis of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer for Early Stage Asymptomatic Patients.

BACKGROUND/AIM: In 2016 in the United States, 7 of 10 patients were estimated to die following lung cancer diagnosis. This is due to a lack of a reliable screening method that detects early-stage lung cancer. Our aim is to accurately detect early stage lung cancer using algorithms and protein biomarkers. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 1,479 human plasma samples were processed using a multiplex immunoassay platform. 82 biomarkers and 6 algorithms were explored. There were 351 NSCLC samples (90.3% Stage I, 2.3% Stage II, and 7.4% Stage III/IV). RESULTS: We identified 33 protein biomarkers and developed a classifier using Random Forest. Our test detected early-stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) with a 90% accuracy, 80% sensitivity, and 95% specificity in the validation set using the 33 markers. CONCLUSION: A specific, non-invasive, early-detection test, in combination with low-dose computed tomography, could increase survival rates and reduce false positives from screenings.